State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has announced the creation of a new Senate Select Committee that will take a closer look at the problems facing Bay Area public transit coming out of the pandemic.
The Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Public Transit will examine Bay Area public transportation challenges as the region makes decisions about its future. Some topics of interest include how the transit system can recover from the pandemic, adapting to more workers going remote, increasing system integration, bettering rider experience and transitioning to clean energy. Wiener will chair the committee, with five other state senators serving as members. Wiener said the Bay Area caucus of the state Legislature was interested in ensuring legislators know as much as possible about issues and how to address them.
“Our Bay Area delegation thought it would be good to create a select committee so that we can publicly vet some of these issues and call attention to them,” Wiener said.
A select committee is an oversight committee and does not have legislation move through it. Instead, it conducts oversight hearings. Wiener said it does not replicate what the transportation committee does in the Senate but will dig deeper into Bay Area transit issues. The committee will have its first hearing with different voices and stakeholders in the next few months.
“The goal is to provide useful information to the public and also to inform us as policymakers,” Wiener said.
Wiener noted that the state faces future budget issues that could affect regional transit in an area more dependent on transit than other areas in the state. Federal funding from COVID-19 relief funds will also run out, and Bay Area agencies will depend more on fare revenue than other transit agencies.
Wiener said the committee is interested in hearing and meeting with various partners and stakeholders, including working with San Mateo County transit agencies Caltrain and SamTrans. Caltrain board Chair Jeff Gee, who also serves as Redwood City mayor, welcomed the committee looking at ways to increase ridership and financial stability for Bay Area transit agencies. Gee noted it had been a struggle to get ridership back on public transit across the region, with Caltrain slightly north of 30% of its pre-pandemic ridership. Weekday ridership remains stagnant, but weekends and off hours have increased. Caltrain is trying to figure out the new work environment, with working from home likely here to stay.
“I don’t think people are going to get everyone back in the office five days a week, so we are trying to figure out where people are working, how they are working and what commute patterns look like,” Gee said.
In a statement, Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard said Wiener had always been a champion of Caltrain, Bay Area transit and public transportation statewide and looked forward to working with the committee.
“We believe the senator and the Select Committee will provide all Bay Area transit operators with a venue to engage with the Legislature on the most pressing issues facing our transit systems,” Bouchard said in an email statement. “Caltrain looks forward to working with the committee and stands ready to offer solutions to support our region’s, and the state’s, public transit systems for the benefit of the communities we serve.”
(1) comment
Sounds like another committee that will result in a few folks thinking they know better than the general population… I wouldn’t be surprised if this committee has already prepared final talking points, and chief among them, how to extract more money from the general population. Hey select committee, if you can’t solve the final mile issue and you can’t generate magic electricity without fossil fuels, then you should remove them from you topics of interest and instead, focus on reducing costs associated with public transportation. With Democrats, that’s a tall order, but maybe you’ll surprise me.
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